Fleet Van Award winners - Fleet Manager awards

Hitachi Capital Fleet manager award winners:

Van fleet of the year: MITIE (Highly commended – United Utilities).

A well-deserved win for MITIE Group and Justin Patterson. The fleet is a strong template for how businesses can maximise cost efficiencies by running their fleet properly.

The fleet has maximised its purchasing power to keep costs low and used technology to great benefit for managing drivers. Furthermore, all this information isn’t kept secret, as a lot of ideas are shared through fleet forums to help other companies benefit.

Van fleet manager (business): Justin Patterson, MITIE.

Our winner was labelled as ‘excellent’ by our judges, with one commenting that he showed what good fleet management is all about. A pro-active and ongoing response to tough market conditions has created a string of best practice initiatives that have managed costs and secured very strong terms from suppliers, including unique warranty terms for some vehicles.

Van fleet manager (utilities): Gary Banister, United Utilities (Highly commended – David Lang, Babcock Rail).

Operating within a high-profile and highly-competitive marketplace, head of transport Gary Banister has overall responsibility for the transport services business and manages a team of 34 staff at United Utilities.

He has put his extensive qualifications in fleet management to good use with a 24% reduction in purchasing costs, more than 50% reduction in breakdowns and savings of more than £1 million in operational costs by maximising efficiency and vehicle utilisation at a major part of the fleet.

The judges were particularly impressed with his focused efforts to tackle fuel management, which led to a 25% reduction in fuel spend.

Van fleet manager (delivery/logistics): Keith Price, Tesco.com.

Tesco.com has grown over 12 years from a single van to its current position as one of the world's biggest online retailers, with annual turnover of more than £1.6 billion.

This growth has included massive expanson of the van fleet and with it the need for an increased focus on risk management and driver management to keep incidents under control.

Cliff Cheeseman's work as training manager on the 2,300 vehicle fleet has led to some eye-opening achievements, including a 90% fall in van damage, a 60% reduction in on-road traffic offences and a 10% reduction in overall fuel consumption.

But the real benefit of the safety campaign has been the impact on people's lives. Despite travelling more than 60 million miles per year, it has not been involved in a single serious injury or fatal crash.

Van fleet manager (green): Dale Eynon, Environment Agency (Highly commended – Chris Pascall, EDF Energy).

In an ever-more important sector of van fleet management, the green credentials of the Environment Agency stood out. The judges said: “You’d expect the Environment Agency to have a robust environmental strategy and it doesn’t disappoint.

“Virtually every base is covered, from alternative fuels to driver training, and use of speed limiters to downsizing vans. “Each policy falls under one of three strategies – reducing mileage, reducing fuel use, reducing CO2 emissions. Its results are impressive.”

Editor’s award: Balfour Beatty Plant and Fleet Services.

Balfour Beatty has really taken a lead with its safety initiative Zero Harm, by which the company will cause no harm to its workers, suppliers, customers and members of the public by 2012.

A cornerstone of this policy is its £200,000 driving simulator which is helping to train drivers in accident avoidance. It’s a real statement of intent and one that earns the company the Editor’s trophy at the Fleet Van Awards.

See the Fleet News Manufaturer awards.
See the Fleet News Service Company awards.
See the judging panel.

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Fleet Van Awards 2009